James Linneman from West Allis, Wis., has always had a special rapport with the 1951 Model B John Deere tractor.

“I was 5 years old when my dad put me on the seat for the first time,” says Linneman, a retired diesel truck technician. “I recall the strict order from him was to keep the front wheels on that potato furrow and don’t waver an inch or 2. I will never forget that day. I was a proud guy.

“Over time he went to work in Milwaukee, and his inventory of three John Deere tractors — a 1931 Model D, a 1951 Model A and the Model B — were sold at his farm equipment auction in 1971.”

Tractor in rough shape

Fond of those memories, Linneman began searching for another B. Eventually he saw one buried in a swamp near Hales Corners, Wis. It had been used on an 80-acre dairy farm in Burlington, Wis., as a general-purpose tractor. The next owner was a contractor in Racine County, Wis., who used it to mow weeds in a paddock that had horses.

“I was able to find the owner and settled on a price of $250 for the machine with an attached No. 5 John Deere mower,” Linneman says. “My son Jerad and I cut through a fence and pulled it 15 miles to my place. There were hundreds of hornets under the hood, but luckily, we never got stung. The transmission shift gear lever was rusty, and we freed the mechanism to get it operable. In a couple of days, the engine popped loose and it started. The tractor had the original block and cast-iron pistons, so I had the block restored and installed new aluminum pistons.”

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This machine is a two-plow row crop tractor built from 1939 to 1952 and manufactured in Waterloo, Iowa. There were 109,253 units made, and the original price in 1952 was $1,900.

Features included: manual steering, open operator cab with a pressed steel frame, electric starter, dry disc clutch, five forward gears and one reverse gear, 12-gallon-capacity fuel tank, differential mechanical expanding shoe brakes, 4-by-2 two-wheel-drive chassis, Power-Trol hydraulics, top road speed of 10 mph, weight between 2,898 and 3,800 pounds, and a John Deere two-cylinder 190-cubic-inch engine.

After removing the sheet metal, the generator was rebuilt, valves were ground, new aluminum pistons were put in, the brakes were redone, and new tires were added. Linneman’s brother Tom sandblasted everything, and Jerad painted the tractor. The quick restoration was finished in nine months at a cost of about $1,700.

A showstopper

“I enjoy taking the tractor to area shows, parades and the Sussex Antique Power Association Day. The B is light; easy to maneuver; fits into small places, which is a bonus when moving equipment; and has a good turning radius,” Linneman adds. “I grew up with this model and spent hundreds of hours on the tractor.”

Linneman researched his tractor and discovered that after coming off the assembly line, the B was delivered to Second and Seeboth streets in downtown Milwaukee. That location, which was the John Deere branch office, is now the Lindsay Building and is still there. It seems the tractor never left the area, a rather unusual occurrence.

To have your favorite tractor featured, email or send in a photo of yourself with your tractor, along with a 300-word write-up about the tractor, to: [email protected] or Wisconsin Agriculturist, P.O. Box 236, Brandon, WI 53919.